MAA vs. ESS, SUI, ELS, UDR, CPT, EQR, AVB, HST, AMH, and VTR
Should you be buying Mid-America Apartment Communities stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Mid-America Apartment Communities include Essex Property Trust (ESS), Sun Communities (SUI), Equity LifeStyle Properties (ELS), UDR (UDR), Camden Property Trust (CPT), Equity Residential (EQR), AvalonBay Communities (AVB), Host Hotels & Resorts (HST), American Homes 4 Rent (AMH), and Ventas (VTR). These companies are all part of the "real estate investment trusts" industry.
Mid-America Apartment Communities (NYSE:MAA) and Essex Property Trust (NYSE:ESS) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, media sentiment, valuation, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings and community ranking.
In the previous week, Essex Property Trust had 8 more articles in the media than Mid-America Apartment Communities. MarketBeat recorded 13 mentions for Essex Property Trust and 5 mentions for Mid-America Apartment Communities. Mid-America Apartment Communities' average media sentiment score of 1.25 beat Essex Property Trust's score of 0.61 indicating that Mid-America Apartment Communities is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Mid-America Apartment Communities presently has a consensus target price of $143.18, suggesting a potential upside of 10.27%. Essex Property Trust has a consensus target price of $243.58, suggesting a potential upside of 2.53%. Given Mid-America Apartment Communities' higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Mid-America Apartment Communities is more favorable than Essex Property Trust.
Essex Property Trust received 212 more outperform votes than Mid-America Apartment Communities when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 61.00% of users gave Mid-America Apartment Communities an outperform vote while only 57.20% of users gave Essex Property Trust an outperform vote.
Mid-America Apartment Communities has higher revenue and earnings than Essex Property Trust. Mid-America Apartment Communities is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Essex Property Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Mid-America Apartment Communities has a net margin of 25.73% compared to Essex Property Trust's net margin of 24.31%. Mid-America Apartment Communities' return on equity of 8.74% beat Essex Property Trust's return on equity.
Mid-America Apartment Communities has a beta of 0.8, indicating that its stock price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Essex Property Trust has a beta of 0.79, indicating that its stock price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.
93.4% of Mid-America Apartment Communities shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.9% of Essex Property Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 1.3% of Mid-America Apartment Communities shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.8% of Essex Property Trust shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Mid-America Apartment Communities pays an annual dividend of $5.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.5%. Essex Property Trust pays an annual dividend of $9.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.9%. Mid-America Apartment Communities pays out 124.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Essex Property Trust pays out 146.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Mid-America Apartment Communities is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Summary
Mid-America Apartment Communities beats Essex Property Trust on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding MAA and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartThis chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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